Stadsgezicht in Bari vanuit een raam in de herberg 1778

Louis Ducros created this watercolour titled 'Cityscape in Bari from a window in the Inn,' which now resides in the Rijksmuseum. The composition is neatly divided into three horizontal bands. A pale sky hovers above the stacked, rectangular forms of buildings which run along the shoreline. Light is reflected across the water, causing it to shimmer. The architecture features a combination of simple geometric shapes and a muted palette of earthy tones. Note how Ducros uses these flat architectural shapes and forms to create a coherent townscape. He seems to have applied a reductive approach to the subject matter. The composition has been simplified into a basic structural format of blocks, lines and planes, where the emphasis is on capturing the town’s essential form. This method of simplification reflects the 18th-century trend of reducing complex phenomena to their most fundamental elements. Ducros prompts us to contemplate the underlying forms that constitute our world.